Rise of Internet+ and McDonald’s Expansion on China

Rise of Internet+ and McDonald’s Expansion on China

“Internet+” has been a popular phrase in China in the last couple of years, and was officially proposed by China’s prime minister Li Keqiang in a report in 2015 to keep pace with the information trend. “Internet+” refers to the application of the internet and other information technology in traditional industries. Essentially, “Internet+” injects various internet technologies (mobile internet, cloud computing, big data, IoT, etc.) to expand and create new industries.

China has already incorporated “Internet+” in a variety of ways for consumers. Enterprises have developed apps to create convenience for people; one can purchase financial products, order food, hail taxis all on applications. However, most applications in China have tweaked the UX to suite Chinese consumer behavior and have the applications integrated with widely used social networks like WeChat and Alibaba APIs. McDonalds is a great example on how they first dominated the market when they came in, and have stayed ahead by adapting to rapidly changing behaviors.

The first McDonalds restaurant opened in China in 1990. In these last 27 years, McDonalds has expanded to over 2,400 stores across the country, with plans to continue expansion as it becomes their biggest market. To localize and stay competitive, they created meals and burgers suited for Chinese tastes and different styles of décor in their restaurants, stay open 24/7 for convenience, etc. People enjoyed it because they could expect the same quality and taste, whenever they wanted.

As the Internet+ trend grew, startups started to disrupt the status quo and shake up traditional companies. The restaurant industry became increasingly competitive by offering differentiators in services or foods. This brought the rise of applications to offer delivery services for these restaurants. As of now, Baidu, Elema, and Meituan have the largest market share in this field.

To keep pace with this change, McDonalds China developed their own application to allow their users to get access to the latest menu changes, coupons, as well as order food quickly and conveniently to their home or gatherings. When they were developing the application, they realized that building applications for the Chinese market had its speed bumps. Fragmentation with the number of devices in China, network stability in different areas of the country, and various other issues were all hindering the development of the application.

To ensure they didn’t waste precious time and resources, McDonalds approached Testin to help. Testin has tens of thousands of models that can be automated for quick checks, and have thousands of testers across China to give real-time feedback of performance in specific locations. With products designed to target the specific pain points, Testin created a customized test plan ensuring these issues McDonalds faced were covered. By covering these issues, McDonalds has a clear vision of what to prioritize during the development and changes to effectively balance their resources. Testin has been working closely with McDonalds the last couple years to help them run UAT and compatibility, ensuring great consumer experience and continually growing their market in China.